McLean says HNIC hasn't been a CBC production for several years. Rogers will assume production and GIVE the games to CBC. CBC gets some advertising slots to push out their latest ice dancing reality show.

On air, TSN will still be a sports reporting and analysis station. The guys on TSN Hockey and Sports Centre won't see much of a reduction. It will be the local TV production crews and the play by play/colour guys who do the games that will suffer. There is already a redundancy of these folks with CBC and Sports Net so figure on 2/3rds of the national pool of play by play/colour commentators and the TV production crews will be on the street looking for work flipping burgers.

Counterpoint to this thought.....

There may be a surplus right now, but if you consider that CBC is only covering Saturday nights, and that Rogers will now have to carry the coverage of the games that TSN has been covering, then Rogers will probably scoop up a chunk of these colour and play by play commentators. No dispute about the production crews though, although it also wouldn't surprise me if both RSN and TSN have used the same local crews for the hands on stuff.

Topper wrote:Rogers' deal is more than ten times that, cue Carl Sagan - "billion and billions" for a monopoly on Canadian NHL broadcast rights across all platforms. It starts at $300 million the first year and escalates to over $500 million annually........and you still don't think more ppv is coming your way......LOL.

Rogers is already talking of a Centre Ice Lite.

That is a huge chunk of change, I'm very surprised at how much more they went over TSN. I'm still not convinced there will be a massive change to the amount of PPV though. Last time they went that route people just pooled together and ended up going out to watch the game. The PPV option seems like a less than lucrative option for Rogers. They can't sell advertising in PPV, and if you are banking on scoring an extra few bucks from every tv subscriber then you are shortsighted to have missed that you might sell every game but chances are you will be selling to less than 30% of you actual viewing audience because of my previously mentioned reason. And I very much doubt that people would actually tune in to hockey games if they priced them at the same level as a fight.

On a personal level I do like the idea of a Center Ice Lite. I barely watch TV as it is, so if I could just by the most basic package and then purchase a subscription to just my team and not have to buy 2 sports packages and the HD sports......all depends on the cost though.

herb wrote:Honestly, I quite like the set-up we have now. Two or three Canucks games a week on Sportsnet, HNIC on Saturday and the three or four nationally broadcast games TSN has per week is enough hockey for me. Every single Canucks game is available without hindrance.

I don't think many people think about it, but I like the simple fact it's on three different networks as well. The variety means I don't have to listen to a PJ Stock or John Garret every game, and things are much more tolerable that way.

It seems a lot of people are speculating how Rogers will turn this into some coin through PPV options. I think if they did this to the standard 82 game Canuck schedule that we now get for free, they would piss off a lot of fans, and not make much money in the process. If they sliced 10 games off the Nuck schedule and made them PPV I wouldn't pay for it. Sorry, I expect to see all the games for free now, I'm not going back to that. I think the way Rogers makes money off this deal is primarily through advertising, not making fans pay for games. If they're smart they'll also introduce something like NFL Red Zone for hockey, stick that on the specialty channels with the full package of games and get people to pay for that.

I think from an advertising perspective, this is a huge hammer for Rogers. Think about it, you're a beer company and (obviously) you want to advertise during hockey games in Canada. How much is that worth to you? There is only one company you can negotiate with now. Imagine what official sponsorship would sell for.

I imagine therewill be perks for Rogers wireless and Rogers wired (i.e. telephone, internet and TV) customers that won't be available to Telus and Bell subscribers. Exclusive content, promotions, and probably watching live games for free on your phone, tablet...etc.

There are already some perks at Rogers Arena for people with Rogers cellphones.

Well one thing is for sure, if Sportsnet ever does the top ten greatest Canadian ever thing Gary Bettmen is going to make the list ahead of Don Cherry ...Never gonna hear Gary Bettman is a little prick out of those guys again..

Monopolies scare me and this deal gives Rogers a monopoly on broadcasting hockey games. They will get to decide what games we can choose from and how much. They won't have to cater to regional markets if they choose not too. I have no doubt they will get to influence start times, dates and days of the week for scheduling purposes.

It may very well turn out to be a good thing but I just don't like monopolies. As a Canuck fan I really am not interested in more games anyway. I barely struggle to get through the playoffs as it is so my viewing habits won't change too much if at all.

They can try to intice me by saying I can choose between 8-10 games on a Saturday but the reality for me is it won't matter. If the Canucks are not playing I won't watch. Most hockey is boring now a days so more of it doesn't excite me.

They've tried Sunday afternoon games in the playoffs and the ratings were not good in the US. Perhaps in Canada a Sunday afternoon game will go over.

Get the hopes and dreams of Leaf Nation high early only to have that 18-wheeler go off the cliff.

Just like this season, started off great, now playing .500 hockey of late with a tough stretch of games ahead.

I encourage you to learn to hate the Leaves more Herb.

It can be SO rewarding!

I'm at the point now where I'd rather watch the Leaves lose than the Canucks win!

Oh I love tracking the overall picture. The hype, the overrated team and players and of course the 18-wheeler going off the cliff is the best part!

I just don't actually enjoy all that much actually watching the games. The sloppy bjs given out each broadcast by Healey, Cherry, Simpson and even Hughson make me want to puke. It's like a home town broadcast, but wait, it's being broadcast nationally.

herb wrote:I just don't actually enjoy all that much actually watching the games. The sloppy bjs given out each broadcast by Healey, Cherry, Simpson and even Hughson make me want to puke. It's like a home town broadcast, but wait, it's being broadcast nationally.